Soap Handmade by Students of Sanwa Elementary School in Jinsekikogen Town, Hiroshima, Delivered to Nepal

In June 2026, the NPO Nakayoshi Gakuen Project implemented WASH education at an educational facility in Rupandehi District, Nepal, utilizing soap made by students from Sanwa Elementary School in Jinsekikogen Town, Hiroshima Prefecture.

WASH is a crucial concept in international cooperation and public health, referring to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene. Globally, many children still lack sufficient access to safe water, sanitary toilets, and handwashing facilities using soap at school. According to the school WASH report by the WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, 447 million children globally lack basic drinking water services at school, 427 million lack basic sanitation facilities, and 646 million lack basic handwashing facilities at school.

In this initiative, Nakayoshi Gakuen delivered the soap handmade by the students of Sanwa Elementary School to schools in Nepal and conducted classes with local children to learn about 'why we wash our hands' and 'what changes when using soap.'

During the classes, local children experienced handwashing using the soap made by the Sanwa Elementary School students. They learned the meaning of using soap instead of just water, practicing careful washing of palms, between fingers, and around nails. Nakayoshi Gakuen communicated handwashing not merely as hygiene guidance, but as an action to 'protect one's own life,' 'protect the health of friends and family,' and 'contribute to the safety of the entire school.'

The CDC indicates that handwashing education using soap reduces diarrheal diseases by 23-40% and respiratory diseases by 16-21% in a community. Using soap also helps lift skin impurities and microbes, removing pathogens more effectively than water alone.

This class was a practice of the 'Learning Project Connected to the World,' where what the students of Sanwa Elementary School learned, considered, and physically created in their local community crossed borders to be used in health education for children in Nepal.

Nakayoshi Gakuen had previously delivered 'AOGA SOAP,' created by students at Aoga Elementary School in Miyoshi City, Hiroshima Prefecture, to Rwanda for handwashing classes. The use of Sanwa Elementary School's soap is a further evolution of that practice.

What Nakayoshi Gakuen emphasizes is not just delivering aid supplies. It is the cycle where what Japanese children learn, make, and think about is used in educational settings worldwide, and the reactions return to the Japanese schools. Through this cycle, Japanese students can realize that their learning is useful for someone else's health and future.

WASH education is not just handwashing guidance. It is an important effort involving both education and health, such as infectious disease prevention, improvement in school attendance, children's health, girls' education, and hygiene in disasters. Schools are places where children live, learn, eat, and play in groups. Establishing handwashing habits with soap not only reduces the children's own risk of infectious diseases but also encourages the spread of hygiene behavior to their homes and communities.

According to the WHO-UNICEF report, the diffusion of basic WASH services in schools is not at a sufficient pace to achieve the SDGs, and to realize basic WASH services in all schools by 2030, the speed of improving drinking water, sanitation, and handwashing environments must be greatly increased. For this reason, Nakayoshi Gakuen emphasizes hygiene education that children can understand, reproduce, and continue at home and school, rather than unilaterally installing expensive facilities. Soap as a familiar material serves as an important entry point to turn WASH education from 'knowledge' into 'action.'